My City, The Sea

Outside my window,

I see a school of fish

Mostly minnows masquerading 

Make believe sharks and crustaceans 

They pride themselves in being separate creations

But they’re all the same

They swim

And they swim

Destined to identical fates

I can’t help but wonder 

The point of the motion

The constant moving forward

The predictable

Plannable

Beaten path

Prepared in a perfect package with the

Pretense of pursuing passion

Only to end up passive in a 

Swimming 

Swimming

State

No fish thinks they follow the fools

Who chase after money and follow made-up rules

But they fall into the flow 

No matter how much they think they know

And never ask themselves 

“Where will all this go?”

Because the swimming isn’t paving

It’s shouting

It’s saying,

“Look at me!

Aren’t I so much better 

Than all the other fish in the sea?

Aren’t I so much greater

Than all the others who have come before me?”

This aquatic life

This reaching for the horizon line

These aimless actions I see all around me

Are lives spent living to please

The swim seems so easy 

And I feel my constant vulnerability 

To the sinking 

The slipping

The life spent in the deep

Like ones led by the fish in my suburb 

My city, the sea

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